Talk:Dragonslayer/@comment-75.132.128.237-20200219131147
I love how Rowan is so persuasive and in chapter 2 this happens: “I think Leaf should know about the Dragonslayer, that’s all.” Leaf’s skin tingled all over just hearing the word. Dragonslayer. A slayer of dragons. That was the exact thing he wanted to be. Someone who protected good people from terrible monsters, not by chanting mumbo-jumbo and talking about visions, but by doing something. “The Dragonslayer is just a myth,” their father said. “Rowan, please, don’t cause any more trouble.” “He’s not a myth. My friend Grove says it’s all true,” Rowan insisted. “Grove’s family used to live in the Indestructible City and they had wandering travelers come through all the time and some of them had even met the Dragonslayer.” “A real dragonslayer? Someone who’s still alive? Who is it?” Leaf asked. “Rowan, do not put ideas in your brother’s head,” their mother warned. “It’s not an idea, it’s a fact,” Rowan said. She sat down and swung her legs over the edge of the loft. Her hair was partly squashed from lying in the hammock, but her dark brown eyes were intense and hypnotic. Leaf would always remember this moment and the look on his sister’s face as he heard about the Dragonslayer for the first time. “The Dragonslayer was only a young man, but he was determined to fight to free his people, and so he rode far out into the desert one night,” she said in a low storyteller voice. “He crept right inside the lair of the sand dragon queen, and he fought a great battle with her, and the blood sprayed and the scales flew, until finally he cut off her head and stole all her treasure and rode back home, triumphant.” “Really?” Leaf breathed. “No, not really,” his mother snapped. “Utter nonsense, like we said.” “He brought the venomous tail of the dragon queen back with him as proof,” Rowan said, still using her eerie voice. “The treasure made him the wealthiest man in the entire world. Rich, powerful, dangerous: the slayer of dragons, the hero of men!” “Yes!” Leaf cried, caught up in the story. “And he saved everybody!” “Stop mesmerizing your brother!” their mother yelled. She threw a dish towel at Rowan, breaking the spell. “If the Dragonslayer were real, the dragons would have caught him and eaten him by now to get their treasure back.” “And you’re leaving out the part about the partner he left behind,” Father added. “Doesn’t sound so heroic when you think about that, does it?” “AHA!” Leaf shouted. “So you know this story! It IS true!” Mother gave Father an exasperated look. “No,” she said. “That’s in the myth. It’s a fairy tale that only brainless families tell their children.” “I’m going to be a dragonslayer, too,” Leaf said stoutly. “I’m going to be a hero of men and kill dragons to save people just like him.” He seized a stick of firewood and brandished it around the house, jabbing at the furniture. “No!” his mother said firmly. “Slaying dragons is absolutely against the rules! The dragonmancers forbid it and I forbid it, too!” “Rowan, what have you done?” Leaf’s father said piteously. “Serves you right and you know why!” Rowan called as she climbed back into her hammock. I love that just “Serves you right and you know why!”